Sydney Airport will buy out its minority shareholders in a $1.2 billion move to simplify its ownership.
The company says it will buy the 15.2 per cent interest in Australia’s biggest airport that it does not already own, moving to a 100 per cent public listing of the company.
Sydney Airport’s shares have gone into a trading halt pending a share placement as part of the buy-out. Its shares last traded at $3.60.
The company will issue 333 million new shares, representing the 15.2 per cent minority holding in the airport.
In a statement on Wednesday, the airport said most of the unlisted minority investors had chosen to retain their interest, swapping their unlisted stake for the new securities.
The minority investors include the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), the Future Fund, Motor Trades Association of Australia Superannuation Fund Pty Ltd (MTAA) and UniSuper.
Sydney Airport chief executive Kerrie Mather said the move to 100 per cent listing had been designed so that there was no dilution of its 38,000 existing investors.
“These investors continue to hold the same proportionate interest in Sydney Airport’s predictable, resilient and growing cash flows,” she said in a statement on Wednesday.
Sydney Airport also revealed it would make a $69 million tax and interest payment to the Australian Tax Office following a settlement deed with the ATO.
